Review Summary

This well-named, fitfully and presumably unintentionally funny mess may be the first horror flick to contain the assurance that “no actual Torah scrolls were destroyed or damaged in the making of this motion picture.” Written and directed by David S. Goyer, “The Unborn” does inflict harm elsewhere, notably on its hapless lead, the wincingly thin Odette Yustman as a hapless college student, Casey Beldon, who when not prettily posing in her underwear is screaming and screaming and sometimes running from a veritable laundry list of horror staples: creepy little children, creepy little ghost children and lots of creepy and crawly and slimy bugs. Even creepier is Mr. Goyer’s use of the Holocaust as an atmospheric backdrop for his generic tale, which after many detours, shrieks and mild boo moments finally snakes back — in murky flashback — to Auschwitz and Josef Mengele’s experiments on twins. — Manohla Dargis